NYC Graffiti Files: UES Edition

by AMANDA MELILLO · May 22, 2008

When my friends and I studied abroad in Italy, one of our favorite things to document via digital camera was the graffiti that was pretty much EVERYWHERE. Wayward teens that had snuck out past curfew felt no hesitance in leaving their mark on, say, the side of the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple dedicated to the gods.

When I was visiting Berlin, graffiti also covered what is now left of the Berlin wall, which some may find tasteless but I liked to think of it as a giant "F-U" to leaders of decades past and reclaiming of history. And now as part of my initiative to take more pictures of this incredibly photogenic city, I've decided to start my NYC graffiti file for photos. Of course, everyone is welcome to join.

This one I came across last night right next to my apartment building. Every square inch of this truck had spray paint squeezed on to the surface. Of course, the back and sides had better graffiti, but the front kind of cracked me up. If you can't read it, it says "Da Crush" and then "Up East 2003." My first though was, "Really? "Da Crush" of the Upper East Side??" And of course I had to document it. Mostly because I've never seen slang on the UES during my time here.